As a result, she mourns, “I killed Emerence. She describes a recurring dream in which she cannot open the locked steel-frame door to her home to let ambulance workers in to “save her patient.” The dream is a version of a real event, she says, and once in a dire situation a locked door was opened to her. The novel’s narrator, a thinly disguised portrait of the author, provides the ending in the first chapter. It was named one of the 10 best books of 2015 by The New York Times Book Review, an accolade too late for its author, who died in 2007 at the age of 90. This drama is at the heart of Magda Szabo’s novel The Door, originally published in Hungarian in 1987 and republished in 2015 in a new English translation. Intervening to save her means risking her wrath and losing her friendship and respect. Respecting her autonomy means leaving her alone, possibly to die. Yet she fiercely refuses every offer of help from friends, neighbors, and the local doctor. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email this Post Published FebruJPosted in Arts & Ideas, Caregiving, Chronic Conditions and End of Life Care, End-of-Life Care, Hastings Bioethics ForumĪn old woman desperately needs medical attention.
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